“I have not lost my mind — it's backed up in the cloud somewhere (part of it right here)!”

Clear and unambiguous

Clear and unambiguous words from the Pope on Christmas Day. Boldly stating the equivalence of our Western “abortion on demand” culture of death, which all too often we dare not talk about, and that of “ISIL” and other terror groups which we are much more ready to denounce.

My thoughts turn to all those children today who are killed and ill-treated, be they infants killed in the womb, deprived of that generous love of their parents and then buried in the egoism of a culture that does not love life; be they children displaced due to war and persecution, abused and taken advantage of before our very eyes and our complicit silence. I think also of those infants massacred in bomb attacks, also those where the Son of God was born. Even today, their impotent silence cries out under the sword of so many Herods. On their blood stands the shadow of contemporary Herods.

(Pope Francis in his speech on the occasion of the blessing Urbi et Orbi, December 25, 2014)